, 1887-09-14

"a pA0 AOk0c 0A00AuA V1S00t ~S0
of the unpro6tableness of present prices, in
the absence from the neighbourhood Of cen.
trail factories for its manufacture, The
course of recent fires in the fields was like
wise in some cases remarked along the line
of railway traversed. It is. difficult to pic
ture the cane which, with the skilful atten-
ton here accorded it could be produced under
the tropical sun of this fruitful Island.
Corn, the only auxiliary crop of the Gu
ban sugar estate, if we except bananas, yams
and such others as form with these, the
principal aliment OF it's laborers, seems to be
produced as fodder only-never as a cereal.
Of this last, considerable quantities are i'm
ported, but rarely or never reach the planta-
lions. Such grasses as thrive at all, without
exotics among them are scarcely to be de-
nominated as especially valuable, 80 far at
least as regards February and March, and
the sugar regions visited. Yet, by reason
of abundant lands, affording broad pasture
ranges, together with perpetual summer, they
bestow sustenance upon the estates in different
stockwith the assistance, during the dry season
particularly, of fodder, as mentioned, and
cane tops during hauling and planting.
Trashing with far greater facility than our
own and cut as an invariable practice at its
middle into two sections, some three four or
~ ICOV 4O0S ObNAIy GSCO1A1uS w OLAEIL4d
height, cane intended for the mill is loaded,
whether directly on the tram car or upon carts,
with q degree of care and free from adhering
leaves and soil altogether beyond our own
best attainment.
Four-ox or, more strictly speaking, four
bull teams, invariably yoked by the horns
to primitive but exceedingly heavy and capa-
cious, two wheeled carts, provided with
crib-stakes instead Of cart bodies, receive the
crop in the field, except more rarely where
portable railroads are employed. These,
slow in pace and shabby in appearance, the
cane being corded, as said, with what to
us would seem extravaganza circumspection,
are yet highly efficient under q vertical SUM-.
delivering from two to two and one half.
long tons (2,24O lbs) along side the carriers
or main rail tracks, per trip, with astonish"
ing ease and precision and absolute
certainty, heavy grades, high heat,
rough roads and long hauls Notwithstanding.
Portable track, tram cars and oxen were
found engaged, instead of such however,
bringing in cane to the locomotives which
operated the main or permanent lines, from
hill-sides in one case so rugged and precipi.
tous as to preclude, it would have seemed,
even the production of the crop itself.
In point of manufacturing appliances, es.
pecially as regards those for crushing and
evaporating, the odds are on the whole de-
cidedly to the advantage of Cuba, as COM
pared at least with our own. More than
10000 hogsheads of the present crop have
been made in factories which, if worked day
and night as are those of Louisiana, would be
easily capable, under good management, of
producing from five to, say, eight millions of
pounds each. Many are yet more extensive
than this implies. Such proportions assure,
of course, better appurtenances than could
reasonably be looked for in one million and
two million pound houses here or elsewherel
A noticeable feature of the Island factory
is, in every case, it's steam boilers, these be-
ing with almost remarkable uniformity forty
feet long, six feet in diameter, with two
twenty inch return hues, each boiler. in a
setting and with furnace, dome, safety and
stop valves and guages exclusively its own.
These are placed in pits, below surface lev
Ell, TO permit che easy dumping and stocking
by hand of the air.dried bagasse. Each
house visited appeared to possess q total
CRATE and heating surface proportionately
far in excess of that to which the observer
had been accustomed at home, using double.
effect, although no comparative calculations
covering the matter were entered into.
Some muititubular and some@ water tube
boilers are in use, these, also, always of
large proportions, and set each independents OF
it's fellows, the Cuban engineer ever maintain
ing erection, such as ours, in batteriea, to be
at once announcement And dangerous. Lower